Power Without Glory
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| Author | Frank Hardy |
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| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Thriller, Novel |
| Publisher | Random House |
| Released | 1950 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 660 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-09-184206-9 |
Power Without Glory is a 1950 novel written by Australian writer and Communist Frank Hardy. The work was originally self-published, and later adapted into a mini-series by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (1976).
The novel was a fictionalised version of the life of Melbourne business man John Wren, set in the fictitious Melbourne suburb of Carringbush (based on the actual suburb Collingwood). Wren was a right-wing power broker in the Australian Labor Party. In the novel, the character based on Wren, "John West", is involved in criminal activities related to gambling and political machinations.
In 1951, Hardy was tried for criminal libel because West's wife was depicted as having an affair in the novel. The case became high-profile; however Hardy was acquitted on the grounds that the work was fictional.
Conscription in WWI was an issue during the time in which the novel was set. Much was written of John West's patriotism and his support for conscription and his sometimes fiery debates with a the Irish-Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne. (Based on anti-conscription clergyman, Archbishop Mannix.) The fictional Archbishop, as did Mannix, opposed conscription on the grounds that to send men to aid England was against his, and Irelands, historical enmity with with that country.
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